“Smoke usually looks smoky”, truer words were never spoken. Has Ms. Deana Smith never heard of smoke rings? Though Ms. Smith thinks it’s a sign from god and the UFO expert thinks it’s an extraterrestrial visitation, it is probably just a special effect smoke from the volcano ride at King’s Dominion, pictured below.

It’s funny how the media reporters didn’t bother do go check if this was a daily occurrence at the park, if they had bothered to film the volcano ride itself, they would have debunked this mystery much sooner, but it’s more fun to say the ring was made by aliens….or god.

Volcano Roller Coaster at King's Dominion

Here is a full length video of the mysterious smoke ring sans annoying nine second commercial and newscasters:

Would it have been that hard for the TV station to have sent a crew to the park to record the ring? Very lazy. That's why local TV is next after newspapers.

Genghis

Smoke rings at that height would have disappated from the wind. It would not keep THE PERFECT CIRCLE!!!! Com'on wake up down there at weirdthing.com!!!!

http://www.andrewmayne.com AndrewMayne

I hope you're not serious Genghis.

http://www.andrewmayne.com AndrewMayne

I helped design a system for a theme park that did exactly this. You also see these vortex rings all the time at fireworks shows. I have a $20 toy that does the same thing.

Genghis

Mr. Mayne, then you should come forward and call up CNN, youtube,and Reuters and tell them to stop playing and reporting this story if you helped design a ride that does this. over 200 people reported this. Plus if you watch the footage the ring DOES NOT MOVE UP!!! IT stays hesitant to one spot! Smoke is essentially heat and heat rises……Plus Mr.Wayne if you created a ride that creates perfect smoke rings and has them fly hundreds of feet in the air, I think you would be famous for this invention. I call shanaigans on you Mr Mayne.

http://www.andrewmayne.com AndrewMayne

I really want to hear your theory on this Genghis. Would you like to write a guest post for Weird Things on what you think this is?

Genghis

I don't know what it is!! That is why it is unexplainable!! (Ban-ban-bummmm!!!!) I seriously would look at how big this thing is, it is huge compared to the ride it is next to. plus they have photos from the 50's that they are comparing it to now a couple of days later…of the same thing. The ring does not move at all, smoke would. If this happens again in the news in a couple of days that is when you hit the Holy-crap button!

If they could get radar of the area from the weather service, that would be your best proof there, but who are we kidding the MIBs are all over this now.

My theory on it is that it is what is left over from when the TARDIS leave this dimension.Haha!!

Night Janitor

As a creator of stage effects I can say with a great deal of confidence that this is indeed a smoke ring generated by the volcano ride. As for being a perfect circle, just looking at the video you can see it slowly degrading just like a smoke ring would and there are plenty of YouTube videos that demonstrate nicely how stable and round smoke rings can be.

Eric

Uh… that doesn't look like a smoke ring to me.

It would be dissipated pretty quickly by varying air currents, and I have never seen a smoke ring so highly coherent. Has sky writing ever looked so sharp? Usually it looks like smoke… puffy, smudgy, and dissipates pretty quickly.

Mark P

That says more about what you know about smoke than it does about how smoke actually behaves Eric.

A few minutes on the web and you can see demonstrations of this. Even on a fairly windy day (which did surprise me). Or you could believe people who know about this sort of thing.

But hey, you can go with your instinct or with your brain.

cooper

I believe it as something to do with the chemtrails and communication.

John

Oh Ghengis…”smoke is essentially heat”…do I need to say more about what is wrong with that statement… I've seen the “volcano” in action there…all it takes is a thermal layer in the air and little wind and the “ring” will stay there until it dissapates. You can sometimes see it with chimney smoke from a factory…the smoke column will rise straight up and suddenly make a 90 degree turn as it hits a layer in the air and is blown along it.

Sue W

This is interesting – everyone who actually knows what they're talking about says it's a smoke ring. No mystery here.

Jim

This evening, July 4th, in Cranberry, PA., during a private fireworks dislay, about 3/4 way into the show, I noticed a very distinct circle or ring above the smoke from the display which were shooting up to about 250-300 Feet. The Ring had a very distince edge, a perfect circle, and I first thought it to be from one of the shells that had been fired. But then I notice the wind was blowing the smoke in a direction from the north west, to the south east, at about a 10-15 mph velocity.The object, the distinct ring shaped object was not moving with the general wind direction, as the smoke and debris was from the Fireworks. It was higher, but I could not resolve the height, but it was stationary. After about 2 minutes, it just faded away,,I was mystified what could cause a very distinct ring shaped object, that did not move with the wind, was very observable, and a perfect circle. If it had been caused by one of the fireworks, it would have been drifting with the prevailing winds, but it was not. I am puzzled..I did not have my camera, and wish I had gotten a picture of it. It seemed almost identical to the one at the Dominican Amusement Park. This was about 10:00 pm on July 4th, along the Freedom Crider Road area, about 3 Miles South of Cranberry, PA.